May 8, 2008

Not too much to report today. Last night, we had trouble finding our hotel, so we went to another one in the same chain, and got directions. Following them, we turned onto this freeway, for no more than 2 kms, then when we pulled off came upon a toll booth and had to pay .90 Euro, to exit the freeway. It's an unbelievable society over here.

We started this morning by looking for some books on different hotel chains, then checking out some of the French Chateaus in the Loire valley, however, we found that the entrance fees to these were astronomical. I guess we were spoiled in Great Britain with our Heritage passes, allowing us to go through most of their castles and museums, for free. We found in France so far, the cheapest entrance fee has been 9.00 EURO each, which works out to about $29.00 CDN for the two of us. Add a few of those up and it can eat into our trip costs quite dramatically. So we took some pictures in one little village, but when we went on to the next one, and found it was as much or more, we decided to press on south.

We let blondie lead us, and again she took us through some wonderful country, with great scenery and narrow empty roads. It's uncanny how I can be driving along a nothing road in a tiny village, turn onto another narrow, nothing road, which turns into a track as I exit town, but does connect with another road somewhere further on. I cannot figure out how she knows how all these "roads" interconnect. Anyway, tonight we're staying at a little place called Brive-La-Gaillarde somewhere south of Limoges. It's a nice little place but neither one of us is impressed with it. The city is not nearly as "quaint" as some of the others we've seen.

We have a good WIFI connection right in the hotel tonight, so we are catching up on all of our internet stuff. The last couple of days, we have had to resort to North American food, by utilizing MacDonald's' and using their free Internet connections. We went ahead and booked the next three nights accommodations in Carcassonne, and Nimes. We're getting closer to the Riviera! We found a lot of the hotels in Nimes were full, so Jan thought we should check when the Cannes Film Festival was taking place this year. Wouldn't you know it....next week. No wonder all the hotels are booked up!

Hopefully the next few days will be more exciting, and picturesque. TTFN (that's "tata for now" for those unfamiliar with computer shorthand)